Because of course…

Jimmy Lai found guilty of endangering national security by colluding with foreign forces, and sedition. HKFP report. And all other HKFP stories on the case.

There is no good publicity for Hong Kong in this – just a display of power.

RTHK says…

Former media tycoon Jimmy Lai “never wavered” in his push to destabilise the governance of the ruling Communist Party and continued to call for sanctions — albeit in a “less explicit way” — even after the National Security Law came into effect, the High Court ruled in his national security trial.

From the Standard editorial…

The court’s meticulous approach, evidenced by an 855-page verdict citing over 2,000 pieces of evidence, underscores the severity and judicial rigor applied.

(See the bottom of page 3 for a graphic showing Lai’s emails and meetings with foreigners.)

The government responds to overseas critics at 1.53 this morning…

The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) Government yesterday (December 15) expressed strong dissatisfaction with and opposition to the United States (US) and western countries, anti-China media, organisations and politicians for their malicious attacks, false statements, and smears against the HKSAR which totally disregarded the rule of law, following the court’s conviction judgment in Lai Chee-ying’s case, which was made strictly in accordance with the law and evidence.

A HKSAR Government spokesperson said, “these biased statements and malicious smears from external forces precisely reflect that the national security risks we face are real. External forces showed no respect in the HKSAR court’s independent judgment of the case, which had been made on the basis of facts and evidence. They also refused to acknowledge the evidence set out in the reasons for verdict, and refused to understand the court’s considerations and rationale for the verdict. Instead, they wantonly launched attacks, slandered and attacked the HKSAR Government, which was clearly a case of politics trumping the law. With the external forces distorting facts and confounding right and wrong, their malicious intentions are clearly revealed. We must sternly denounce their wrongdoings to set the record straight.”

The court’s conviction verdict was entirely free from any political considerations.

Beijing’s Foreign Ministry also issues a statement. The Ministry’s Hong Kong branch tells foreign media in the city that the case was not about press freedom…

In the letter released on Monday, the office’s spokesperson said Lai was found guilty of conspiring with external forces to endanger national security and conspiring to publish seditious publications. It clarified that Lai was not prosecuted for news reporting or expressing opinions, but for colluding with foreign forces to jeopardize national security.

The spokesperson described Lai as a key planner and participant in activities aimed at destabilizing Hong Kong and a pawn for external anti-China forces. His actions, including inciting hatred, supporting violent acts, and openly calling for foreign sanctions, constituted serious crimes under any legal system, the letter stated.

The office emphasized the trial was open and transparent, with the public, media and foreign consular officials able to observe proceedings. Lai’s legal rights were fully protected, and Hong Kong’s judicial authorities exercised independent adjudication. It also refuted allegations of inhumane treatment, stating Lai’s lawful rights are guaranteed and his health is good

Sentencing will take place next month. Perhaps not ‘life’, because it would look terrible and he is already old and in poor health. So maybe… 15 years? That should do the trick.

Some overseas coverage…

From the Guardian…

Jimmy Lai, the Hong Kong pro-democracy media tycoon, is facing life in prison after being found guilty of national security and sedition offences, in one of the most closely watched rulings since the city’s return to Chinese rule in 1997.

Soon after the ruling was delivered, rights and press groups decried the verdict as a “sham conviction” and an attack on press freedom.

Britain reiterated its stance that the prosecution was “politically motivated” and called for the immediate release of Lai, who is a British citizen. Lai’s conviction comes just weeks before an expected visit to Beijing by the UK prime minister, Keir Starmer.

Lai, 78, has been in jail since late 2020 on remand and serving several protest-related sentences totalling almost 10 years. Monday’s conviction, in which judges called him a “mastermind” of conspiracies designed to destabilise the Chinese government, came after a controversial trial that stretched for more than two years.

Lai appeared in the West Kowloon district court on Monday, in a grey jacket, flanked by armed guards as he sat in the glass-walled dock, as his family sat nearby. Crowds of supporters and onlookers, some of whom had queued overnight, had packed the main courtroom and several spillover rooms to see the highly anticipated – but widely predicted – verdict delivered.

From AP…

Three government-vetted judges found Lai, 78, guilty of conspiring with others to collude with foreign forces to endanger national security and conspiracy to publish seditious articles. He pleaded not guilty to all charges.

Lai was arrested in August 2020 under a Beijing-imposed national security law that was implemented following massive anti-government protests in 2019. Lai has spent five years in custody, much of it in solitary confinement, and appears to have grown more frail and thinner. He has also been convicted of several lesser offenses related to fraud allegations and his actions in 2019.

Lai’s trial, conducted without a jury, has been closely monitored by the U.S., Britain, the European Union and political observers as a barometer of media freedom and judicial independence in the former British colony, which returned to Chinese rule in 1997.

…Reading from an 855-page verdict, Judge Esther Toh said that Lai had extended a “constant invitation” to the U.S. to help bring down the Chinese government with the excuse of helping Hong Kongers.

Lai’s lawyers admitted during the trial that he had called for sanctions before the law took effect, but insisted he dropped these calls to comply with the law.

But the judges ruled that Lai had never wavered in his intention to destabilize the ruling Chinese Communist Party, “continuing though in a less explicit way.”

Toh said the court was satisfied that Lai was the mastermind of the conspiracies and that Lai’s evidence was at times contradictory and unreliable. The judges ruled that the only reasonable inference from the evidence was that Lai’s only intent, both before and after the security law, was to seek the downfall of the ruling Communist Party even at the sacrifice of the people of China and Hong Kong.

From the WSJ…

[Apple Daily] angered Chinese officials with its relentless criticism of China’s ruling Communist Party and support for protest movements in Hong Kong. 

When Beijing clamped down on Hong Kong protests by imposing a national-security law on the city in 2020, Lai was a target. The law has been used to imprison dozens of former opposition lawmakers and activists, effectively shutting down the pro-democracy movement.

Apple Daily closed in 2021 under pressure from Hong Kong authorities, who froze company assets, seized journalists’ computers and charged top executives under the national-security law.

…During the trial, Judge Esther Toh reprimanded Lai for referring to himself as a political prisoner, saying court rulings were based on evidence without regard for a person’s political stance.

Lai was accused of undermining China’s national security in connection with the financing of an international advertising campaign that called for sanctions on Chinese and Hong Kong officials during the 2019 protests. Lai argued that he wasn’t an organizer of the campaign and had merely provided bridge loans when crowdsourced funds were temporarily frozen.

The first Trump administration imposed sanctions in 2020 on senior Hong Kong officials including Chief Executive John Lee and on mainland Chinese officials who oversee Hong Kong. Prosecutors argued that they didn’t need to prove that there was a direct connection between those sanctions and lobbying by Lai and others.

Lai backed the imposition of sanctions in articles, social media and online video chats he conducted after Apple Daily closed in 2021, the court said. The prosecution cited Lai’s international contacts, including meetings with former Vice President Mike Pence and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, as evidence intended to show that Lai had influence abroad.

Lai was also convicted of the publication of dozens of what the prosecution described as seditious articles that attacked government authorities. Hong Kong’s colonial-era sedition law was revived as part of the legal campaign against dissent that followed the 2019 protests.

From the Japan Times…

The founder of the now-shut Apple Daily newspaper has been behind bars since 2020, with his case widely criticized as an example of eroding political freedoms under the national security law Beijing imposed on Hong Kong following huge and sometimes violent pro-democracy protests in 2019.

Prosecutors said Lai, 78, was the mastermind behind two conspiracies to ask foreign countries to impose “sanctions or blockade” or take “hostile activities” against Hong Kong or China, and accused him of publishing materials they said “excited disaffection” against the government.

“There is no doubt that (Lai) had harboured his resentment and hatred of the PRC for many of his adult years, and this is apparent in his articles,” Judge Esther Toh told the court, using the acronym of the People’s Republic of China.

“It is also clear to us that the first defendant has from an early stage, long before the National Security Law, been applying his mind as to what leverage the U.S. could use against the PRC,” she said, referring to Lai.

Lai, wearing a light green cardigan and gray jacket, looked impassive as he listened to the verdicts with folded arms, and did not speak.

…The British government has repeatedly described the prosecution of Lai, a British citizen, as “politically motivated.”

The Committee to Protect Journalists condemned Monday’s ruling as a “sham conviction.”

“The ruling underscores Hong Kong’s utter contempt for press freedom, which is supposed to be protected under the city’s mini-constitution, the Basic Law,” CPJ Asia-Pacific Director Beh Lih Yi said in a statement.

…Lai looked thinner than when he first entered custody, and some of the dozens of supporters who gathered at dawn in front of West Kowloon court building expressed concern for his well-being.

“I really want to see what’s happening with ‘the boss,’ to see if his health has deteriorated,” said Tammy Cheung, who worked at Lai’s newspaper for nearly two decades.

His daughter Claire said last week that Lai, a diabetic, had “lost a very significant amount of weight” and showed nail and teeth decay during his long imprisonment.

The NYT provided a rolling live feed.

From CNN…

In delivering their verdict, judges said there was “no doubt that (Lai) had harbored his resentment and hatred of the PRC … for many of his adult years.”

From the BBC…

Lai’s trial came to be widely seen as yet another test of judicial independence for Hong Kong’s courts, which have been accused of toeing Beijing’s line since 2019, when it tightened its control over the city.

Hong Kong authorities insist the rule of law is intact but critics point to the hundreds of protesters and activists who have been jailed under the NSL – and its nearly 100% conviction rate as of May this year.

Bail is also often denied in NSL cases and that was the case with Lai too, despite rights groups and Lai’s children raising concerns about his deteriorating health. He has reportedly been held in solitary confinement.

Lai’s son Sebastien told the BBC earlier this year that his father’s “body is breaking down” – “Given his age, given his health… he will die in prison.”

The Hong Kong government has also been criticised for barring foreign lawyers from working on NSL cases without prior permission. They said it was a national security risk, although foreign lawyers had operated in the city’s courts for decades. Subsequently Lai was denied his choice of lawyer, who was based in the UK.

A statement from the European HK Diaspora.

A Tweet from Luke de Pulford…

Jimmy Lai has been convicted in a sham trial. 

My name appears 161 times in the #JimmyLai judgment and IPAC nearly 200 times. 

Jimmy had nothing to do with IPAC. We offered to give evidence to the court, but they didn’t want the truth.